E3 2016: Summon Night 6: Lost Borders (Hands-On)

Away from the hectic pace and noise of the E3 show floor, Gaijinworks was showing off the latest Summon Night behind closed doors. A short trek across the street, I had a meeting with Gaijinworks President, Victor Ireland, who was on hand to walk me through the intricacies of the newest Strategy RPG coming to PS Vita and Playstation 4, Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.

A brief dialog sequence introduced me to one of the new characters in Summon Night 6: Lost Broders, Raj, the male lead of the story. I was placed in a battle that was about a few hours into the game, giving me access to a lot of familiar faces in the Summon Night series, like Aty from Summon Night 5, and Amer from Summon Night 2. The story features a lot of characters crossing over to this game, though not much is known beyond that at this time.

The Strategy RPG elements means some grid-based movement (though with a little bit of free movement), tactical placement of units, combo attacks that prevent enemies from counter-attacking, decrease MP usage from attacks, or give your enemies debuffs and buffs to your allies. The difficulty of the demo was certainly on display, as three attacks was more than enough to take down Raj, leaving me a little short handed for the rest of the battle, thankfully Victor was there to inform me of the various skills and items at my disposal.

Post battle, I was shown the affection system that allows you to earn the affection with both male and female members of your party. Having a high affection will have an effect on which ending you receive, which gives you the option of multiple character endings when you wrap things up. Though the demo was only a scant thirty minutes, there was plenty to see, some great 2D sprite-work, lots of special skill effects, and a rather speedy battle system to cap it off. In addition to this, Vita players will be able to cross-save their progress, so they can take their PS4 game save on the go. We've got a few months to go on this one, with an 'early 2017' window given as the release date, but Summon Night 6: Lost Borders is definitely one to keep an eye on if you've played previous entries in the series, or need to scratch a Strategy RPG itch once Valkyria Chronicles has run its course.